Bean

Prologue

January, 2004
Tokyo, Japan

Shortly after midnight, there was a knock on the hotel suite door.

L took a deep breath.  This was it.  He was about to show his face as L for the first time.

He stepped over to the door and flipped the lock.

"It's unlocked," he said.  "Please, let yourselves in."

He took a few steps backwards and stood with his hands in his pockets as the door opened.

Five men- all members of the Japanese Police- stood in the doorway.  Their expressions turned from solemn to shocked almost immediately.

L, feeling thoroughly uncomfortable, used his toes to scratch his ankle. 

"I am L," he said simply.

The men just stared.

L scratched the back of his head.

Finally, the man appearing to be in charge lifted his police badge.

"I am Yagami of the NPA," he said.

The other men did the same.

"Uh, Matsuda."

"I'm Aizawa."

"Mogi."

"Ukita."

L groaned inwardly.  What were these people thinking?  Didn't they know that Kira only needed a face and a name to kill?  They were being so careless!  The one who called himself Yagami was speaking, but L wasn't listening.  Instead, he lifted his index finger and thumb and pointed at the group, as if holding a gun.

"Bang!"

Naturally, the men were quite taken aback by this.  A few of them protested noisily.

L remained calm as he explained.  "If I were Kira, you'd be dead, Mr. Soichiro Yagami, chief of the NPA," he said in an annoyed tone.  "Kira needs a face and a name in order to commit murder.  But I'm sure you've already figured that much out, haven't you?  Please, do not give out your names so carelessly.  Instead, let's value our lives."

With that said, he turned toward the living room and, after instructing everyone to turn off their cell phones, he took a seat in one of the chairs, bringing his knees to his chest like always.

There was a coffee tray on the table in front of him, and L didn't say a word until his hot drink was poured and properly sugared according to his excessive standards.  Then, the meeting began.  He started by requesting that everyone call him "Ryuzaki" from now on.

He spoke for awhile, going over his deductions and his plan for action.  Picking up a black marker, he began writing directly on the coffee table.

Just then, one of the suite's bedroom doors opened.

The Task Force was all at once in a state of complete bewilderment as a small boy, appearing no older than four or five, stepped out.  He clicked the door shut and turned to run with tiny steps over to L's chair.  He then proceeded to crawl underneath it, and then he just... stayed there.  He sat cross-legged, sticking his little face out from under the chair and looking at everyone curiously through strands of floppy, black hair that fell into his slender, electrifying blue eyes.

He was wearing patterned footie pajama pants and a hoodie with bear ears.  The ends of both hoodie strings were in his mouth and his hands were stuffed in his front pockets.

L barely skipped a beat and continued talking about the case and the FBI agents as though nothing were amiss... but he realized quickly that no one was listening.  He sighed.

"Alright," he said firmly. "I'll introduce you, but if we are going to be working together on this case, you cannot allow yourselves to be so easily distracted. Is that understood?"

The Task Force looked a little embarrassed, but they all agreed and some mumbled apologies.

"Everyone..."  L leaned forward with his hands on his knees to look down at the small face that was now peering up at him.  The little boy's mouth formed a smile around the hoodie strings he was chewing on.

"This," the detective spoke plainly, "is my son."